Internet security

07/06/2012

Malware Monday: Thousands could lose internet access

You could be one of the tens of thousands of people who lose their Internet service Monday unless you do a quick check of your computer for malware.

According to the FBI, the number of computers that probably are infected with DNSChanger is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. About 64,000 still-infected computers are probably in the United States.

The FBI seized about 100 servers that were infecting millions of computers with the DNSChanger Trojan back in November. They could have shutdown the servers immediately, but the consequence is that the victims would lose internet access. So, the FBI delayed the shutdown until July 9 to give people an opportunity to act on their own.

To check whether a computer is infected, users can visit a website run by the group brought in by the FBI: http://www.dcwg.org .

If you fail to check and your computer is infected, you will lose internet access on July 9.